Last year, the Prime Minister made various promises to the effect that the new gas fired power station in Delimara would be up and running, producing power under its own steam. However, in the past week, the tone has changed and it seems that the power station will not be operational by March 2015. Only last week, the PM still refused to admit that the project was running behind schedule, however, yesterday, he said that it will be delayed - not by years, but perhaps by a few months.

This publishing house has been diligently following the development of the new power station in Delimara for the past weeks.

The first report was by this newspaper's sister paper The Malta Independent on Sunday last month on 28 September. In that report, we revealed that there was no sign of any action whatsoever in the earmarked site. Having chartered a boat, this newsroom scoured the coastline for a sign of development, but nothing was evident. Yet last week, we saw the first inklings that things were starting to move. Let us be clear... from the off, we stated that there was no harm in admitting that things had run behind schedule. This publishing house also took an editorial position in stating that it would be better to seek national consensus on the issue and state, straight and plain, that things were running sluggishly and that while a boost was needed, it would be better to aim for a new date.

Throughout our investigations, we repeatedly pressed the Energy Ministry headed by Konrad Mizzi for information. To say that it was not forthcoming was an understatement. It was a full on stonewalling exercise. This publishing house is not in the business of torpedoing plans, that is why we called for a declaration to give a new target date, and that is why we sought information from the Energy Ministry. We call a spade a spade, which is why we also reported that preparatory works had started. But what we cannot understand is the fact that the PM had to fend off questions, seemingly buying time, while Dr Mizzi dithered. And then, out of the blue, Dr Mizzi finally came clean. The Delimara gas-fired power station will not be completed by March and that a new date will be set in November. It is understood that Dr Mizzi is in China to finalise more details related to the power station deal. But yet, our high level trade envoy does not feature in any news that is filtering out of China. One wonders what is happening in that respect.

It is also clear, as our columnist Marlene Mizzi posted on Facebook over the weekend, that electricity bills will still be lowered, even though the new plant is not operational. Dr Mizzi also said the same thing this weekend. BWSC is changing to gas fuel, the interconnector project is nearing completion, Marsa is due to close... and Enemalta is in a good position to reduce tariffs even though the new plant is not even up and running. So, it begs the question... why on earth are we building this new plant? Is it part of the deal to support the refinancing by the Chinese? In time, Chinese whispers will probably shed more light on the issue.